The piece, written under his pen name Saidi, was published this evening in Al Qalam, considered the Jaish’s online mouthpiece.

The road that the government of Pakistan is taking — in its crackdown against the Jaish-e-Muhammad — is “very dangerous for this country” and its steps against mosques, madrasas and jihad are a danger to the unity and integrity of Pakistan, Maulana Masood Azhar wrote today while news of his detention was coming in. The piece, written under his pen name Saidi, was published this evening in Al Qalam, considered the Jaish’s online mouthpiece.

His piece is peppered with references to his days in detention in Tihar, Kot Bhalwal — the Jammu prison from where he was freed in the IC-814 swap — and to his days in Bahawalpur jail in Pakistan and house arrest in the wake of the attempt on former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s life.

“Allah willing, this army won’t let (our) enemies celebrate for too long,” he continued, “it (his army) won’t let my absence be felt at all. Thanks to Allah, I don’t have any desire that will remain unfulfilled at my death. As for as my family and my children, they are taken care of by Almighty Allah and Almighty Allah will take care of them tomorrow as well.”

Ridiculing the Pakistan Government, he wrote: “…There is a lot of noise coming from India regarding us — arrest, kill, arrest, kill — and here our rulers are in anguish because, perhaps, we have disturbed their intimacy and friendship (because) they want that on the day of judgment, they should stand as friends of Modi and Vajpayee.”

Explaining Jaish’s stand vis a vis the government in Islamabad, he wrote: “Our thinking regarding Pakistan has always been based on wishing it well and peace…not to save our life and skin but for the interests of Muslim Umma (nation) and in the interest of jihad. I am sorry that the rulers here (in Pakistan) have no respect for that. They (have) continued to be guided by those who are not our own — and they (rulers) continue to turn their own country into a heap of explosives and fire. Each one of them comes and puts their own country on fire and then they flee.”

“I have not harmed the government of Pakistan ever…there is not a single case registered against me in any police station across Pakistan. While I was lodged in Bahawalpur Central jail, the jail administration feared that my friends and companions may attack them. So I was (shifted) to Dera Gazi Khan,’’ Azhar wrote. “I kept on explaining to them that this was my own country…Allah helped and my own home was declared a sub jail and I was kept there.”

In his piece, he also recalls his days in the Jammu jail and refers to incidents around him. For example, he praises the “Kashmiri mujahideen” for standing “like a wall” to stop authorities from moving him to another prison. This is an apparent reference to the scuffle in December 1994 between inmates and police over Azhar’s transfer.